Ease of Learning: 4 / 5

Ease of Use: 4.5 / 5

Enjoyment: 4 / 5

Design: 4.5 / 5

Value for Money: 4.5 / 5

At the start of this month, Samsung released its updated range for the Series 6 Smart TVs. Although there wasn’t much you could fault with its previous Series 6 range, with continuous development, reduced build costs and enhanced specs, it seemed a natural progression. I recently received a review unit for one of the sets in the range, officially known as the Samsung Series 6. I’m sure there’s an even longer title out there somewhere that include the words like Slim and Full HD, but I’ll keep it as short as I can, and stick with Samsung 46″ ES6200 Series 6 Smart 3D LED TV.

Watching the TV been unloaded and carried in made me dread having to unpack and assemble it. I was surprised at just how easy it was to lift it out of the box and complete the setup, from installation to selecting channels. The Samsung 6200 weighs just 15KG if you include the stand, and 13.2KG without it. Even if you’re a techie, gadget freak or some sort of science guru, the ease of which any equipment is setup is always welcome.

Having seen a number of other HD Television sets, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by anything this had to offer. To my delight, though, I found that the display quality was admirable. The 46” display with 1920×1080 resolution provides great picture, which is aided by its Wide Colour Enhancer Plus, Digital Noise Filter available and 400Hz Clear Motion Rate features. When watching 3D TV, I will always have my doubts as the experience isn’t always satisfactory. Again with this TV, there wasn’t much to be excited about, as the results were good, but not great. The most excitement I found using the 3D capabilities of the Samsung 6200 was while playing 3D-enabled PC games. The 6200 also offers 3D conversion, which allows you to convert regular, 2D, TV into 3D pictures. What I found rather strange was that this feature performed much better converting sports and real-life video than it did with animated video. A word of warning though, watching fast moving action, like sports, using this feature can take its toll on your eyes…then again it might just be me.

With the included label of Smart TV, we want a device that is just that. Samsung’s offering into the Smart World is based around its Smart Hub software, which enables users to connect to the Internet, browse, connect to social apps, etc. all by means of its integrated Wi-Fi. Once connected and logged into your Samsung account, there are a number of apps to try out that come standard with the TV. These includes YouTube, social apps (Facebook, Gmail, Skype and Twitter), and Family Story, Fitness and Kids apps. If this isn’t a sufficient amount of apps, you can always browse the app store in order to download those that interest you. Despite the limited amount of apps available via the Smart Hub, and although you’d want as many as there are possible to fit on the internal storage, it just wouldn’t make sense on a TV. The Smart TV experience also extends to your Samsung smartphone, which allows you to download apps like the remote, while keeping others synced between devices.

The great feature about the Samsung’s Smart TVs is that you are able to connect peripheral devices such as your mouse and keyboard to enhance your experience. This comes in handy when required to type anything onscreen, as navigating by means of the remote is simply painful. The problem with using any input devices is that you have to choose which you’d want most, since there is only one USB port for this model (and 2 for most of the higher end models), which isn’t at all enough. Attempting to use a wireless combo set might also yield disappointing results to most users, although it does state in fine print somewhere that the TV is best used with Microsoft USB devices. The only other port included with the 6200, besides the sound and video ports, is that of the LAN input.

One of my favourite features of this TV was using the PiP (Picture-in-Picture) capability. This allowed me to continue using my PC as I usually would while keeping an eye on any sports that were being played at the time. I also used this feature while using the Fitness app, but not with the same results. Another of the major positives about this Smart TV is that there are numerous amounts of settings to adjust and customise to your liking. You are also able to view the manual for the TV from the Menu, which guides you through almost all possible setups you wish to achieve.

As you can tell from the previous paragraph, one of the negative aspects of this TV is its lack of included ports. With only one USB and 2 HD ports, you simply can’t go around waving names around like Smart TV if you only wish to get by on the bare minimum, even if this isn’t the top of the range device in this series. Another issue I had was using the remote. The remote itself was of good quality and offered sufficient shortcuts, but the interaction between it and the TV was extremely sluggish. If you’re expecting a smooth interactive UI, you may want to throw that requirement out the window.

The biggest problem I have with owning such a TV is the limited content available on the South African market. Yes there are numerous Blu-ray movies available, and a handful of HD channels on DStv, there just isn’t enough daily viewing right now. I spent quite a lot of my time using this Full HD 3D LED TV connected to my PC playing 3D games and watching 3D YouTube clips, not to mention those.

What’s really great about the Samsung 46″ ES6200 Series 6 Smart 3D LED TV is that you can purchase it at most stores that stock it for less than R14,000 (in some cases around R12,000). If you slap on a few extra HD and USB ports, and improve the remote interaction, you’re looking at a must-have device. Yes there are larger sized displays available, but making the seemingly small jump to 50” will shift the price closer to R20,000. This device has literally become part of the furniture, and is one of the rare gadgets I’ve spent time reviewing that will leave an empty space, even after being replaced.

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I had a look at this TV today at the local Makro and was very impressed with it. However I am not happy with it only having two HDMI & 1 Usb ports. Is it possible to increase these ports and how, also the improvement of the remote…how can I sort these out as I want to purchase this unit this week.

For both the USB port, you will have to purchase a separte USB Multiple Port Adapter. This effectively increases the amounts of USB devices you can connect.

For HDMI, it won’t be as simple. The easiest option is to get a HDMI to RCA converter to make use of those video inputs, which loses the HD aspect to some extent.

For the remote, I’m not sure what you find to be the issue. If you simply don’t like it, you can always purchase a universal remote, but avoid cheap remotes. Logitech’s universal remote range are very useful.